Editing Sophia Loren (section)

=== Early roles ===
[[File:'La baia di Napoli".jpg|thumb|Loren in ''It Started in Naples'' (1959), in which she sang "[[Tu vuò fà l'americano]]"|244x244px]]
Sofia Lazzaro enrolled in the [[Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia]], the national film school of Italy and appeared as an uncredited extra in [[Mervyn LeRoy]]'s 1951 film ''[[Quo Vadis (1951 film)|Quo Vadis]]'', when she was 16 years old.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/59900 |title=Quo Vadis |author=Celia M. Reilly |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |access-date=5 May 2017 |archive-date=4 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204182419/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/59900%7C0/Quo-Vadis.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Small|first=Pauline|title=Sophia Loren: Moulding the Star|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4QhnLOpcLfcC&pg=PA24|access-date=5 May 2017|year=2009|publisher=Intellect Books|isbn=978-1-84150-234-2|page=24}}</ref>

That same year, Loren appeared in the Italian film ''[[Era lui... sì! sì!]]'', in which she played an [[odalisque]], and was credited as ''Sofia Lazzaro''. In the early part of the decade, she played bit parts and had minor roles in several films, including [[La Favorita (film)|''La Favorita'' (1952)]].<ref>La Favorita – 1952 – https://pics.filmaffinity.com/la_favorita-233461134-large.jpg</ref>

[[Carlo Ponti]] changed her name and public image to appeal to a wider audience as ''Sophia Loren'', being a twist on the name of the Swedish actress [[Märta Torén]] and suggested by [[Goffredo Lombardo]]. Her first starring role was in ''[[Aida (1953 film)|Aida]]'' (1953), for which she received critical acclaim.<ref name="yahoo1">{{cite web|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018204/bio|title=Sophia Loren biography at|publisher=Yahoo! Movies|access-date=15 March 2010|archive-date=3 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103122020/http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018204/bio|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After playing the lead role in ''[[Two Nights with Cleopatra]]'' (1953), her breakthrough role was in ''[[The Gold of Naples]]'' (1954), directed by [[Vittorio De Sica]].<ref name="yahoo1" /> ''[[Too Bad She's Bad]]'', also released in 1954, and ''[[The Miller's Beautiful Wife|La Bella Mugnaia]]'' (1955) became the first of many films in which Loren co-starred with [[Marcello Mastroianni]]. Over the next three years, she acted in many films, including ''[[Scandal in Sorrento]]'', ''[[Lucky to Be a Woman]]'', ''[[Boy on a Dolphin]]'', ''[[Legend of the Lost]]'' and ''[[The Pride and the Passion]]'' (1957), the latter film a Napoleonic era war-epic set in Spain starring [[Cary Grant]] and [[Frank Sinatra]].